XBOX Reviews

Blue Dragon

Blue Dragon is an epic role-playing game that centers on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends. These unlikely heroes possess the power to control phantom shadows that mirror the actions of their masters, giving Shu and his comrades miraculous strength and magical powers. The warriors can create and develop their combat styles by utilizing different types of Shadow Change, including Sword, Assassin, and Power Magic. Shu and his friends must use the shadows as weapons and wield their skills to save their world from impending doom. Encountering various people on a planet where numerous ancient ruins remain, the characters and their shadows travel through a world full of mysteries and illusions, where the slightest touch can cause reactions of unparalleled magnitude.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Good enough.
Blue Dragon is a very standard and relatively enjoyable RPG. While there are some interesting and unique elements, it will seem like a cookie-cutter RPG to those with a lot of playing experience.

The story of Blue Dragon is very simple, which is unfortunate. The main focus is four young adventurers avenging the destruction of their hometown. Along the way they encounter a large variety of other characters, but none are incredibly memorable. There is an underlying theme that has to do with human nature and the nature of robotic beings. Though there were a number of different directions that could have been taken by the game creators, the story comes up a little short in the end. Fortunately, the main characters are very likeable and their strong relationship is a good motivation for players to finish the story.

I had huge expectations for the soundtrack, given that it was scored by Nobuo Uematsu. Unfortunately, I had difficulty finding any tracks that I liked or found memorable. The scenery of the game is very colorful, but also very conventional. There are some interesting locations, though, like the “Laser Field” and “Ancient Hospital.”

Gameplay is just like a lot of other RPGs, but in a good way. It is just a standard turn-based battle system, but some actions require “charging,” which requires some strategic timing and button pressing. Each character can equip four accessories and equip unique abilities. There are a number of job classes to choose from, but I thought the default jobs were good enough. The difficulty level is also fairly low. You may find yourself challenged during a few boss battles, but there are convenient “checkpoints” before each of them so you won’t lose your progress if you get knocked out.

The main storyline takes up less than thirty hours, and there are a number of side quests. You could also spend the time to have each of your characters master several job classes if you wished. However, by the time I reached the final hours of the game, I was ready for it to be over. While it is certainly an enjoyable game, there was no remarkable or outstanding aspect that made me want to keep playing and playing. If you are looking for a game just to pass the time or are a game that doesn’t require a big time committment, I recommend Blue Dragon.

4 Stars Blue dragon is a good rpg for the 360.
This a great rpg, but not comparable to Final Fantasy. I t may have been created by the guy who help propel FF on PlayStation, but this won’t have that effect on 360.It’s three disc and has descent cut scenes, the play is like any other rpg, the shadow class is great plus, you can change any of the charters abilities. The achievements are a problem, just like in most of the rpgs that I’ve played, you need to have more that one file, and its gets boring after a while having to always battle to get you level and SP up to unlock achievements.Blue Dragon great, but If you not into rpgs, I would stay away.

3 Stars If you like NES RPGs here is a great one for you
I began Blue Dragon with great hopes. Stunning visuals, ‘new game play’, lots of fun. The game looks wonderful, however after about disc 2 (there are four I believe, maybe three) you just stop caring. I found the grinding to be a bit on the heavy side (I beat the final boss fight without him going though, so maybe too high.) The characters have been cut from other JRPGS (and if you don’t know what the J is for don’t play this game, you will want to set it on fire.) Some interesting mini-games in it. THe monster fight mechanic is interesting, however it does get old after a while. The achievements for the 360 are horrid. Read online and the suggestion is to put your controlled down on the ground and allow it to fight the monsters without you there and you will level up. I do not recommend the game, but I look forward to some of their other games as this is a strong start to a good series of games.

4 Stars Solid RPG
While many have tried the demo and found it lacking, the full game is much better in my opinion. While it is a fairly standard RPG, it is a good one at that.

3 Stars A fun video game
this was a Christmas gift for one of my sons, he is into the XBox 360 games since he got the player on his birthday, I’m not into this kind of stuff but the young kids are these days. Also the price was right at the time I bought it.

Buy/More Info

Prince of Persia

Experience the new fantasy world of ancient Persia. Masterful storytelling and sprawling environments deliver a brand new adventure that re-opens the Prince of Persia saga. You have the freedom to determine how the game evolves in this non-linear adventure. Decide how you unfold the storyline by choosing your path in the open-ended world. In this strange land, your rogue warrior must use all of his skills, along with a whole new combat system, to battle Ahriman’s corrupted lieutenants to heal the land from the dark Corruption and restore the light. Also, history’s greatest ally is revealed in the form of Elika, a dynamic AI companion who joins the Prince in his fight to save the world. Gifted with magical powers, she interacts with you in combat, acrobatics and puzzle-solving, enabling the Prince to reach new heights of deadly high-flying artistry through special duo acrobatic moves or devastating fighting combo attacks.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars prince of suck is more like it
this game begs the question,if you had like ten really cool moves but you had to do them over and over and over and over,would the game still be fun?thats right,you move around like you are in a 1980s video game where each move could be your last.so getting around is a real chore.the moves are cool to move around but like in the matrix and mortal kombat,the moves get old fast.plus given that all the moves only serve to move prince around,its like i said ,old.then every once in a really long time there is a monster.prince moves around like a baby so cool combos and breath taking breakneck speeds are out.he fights by cramming the buttons down in a pattern.you will definately get a cramp like we havent felt since nascar.then theres the map which makes no sense and offers no way to decipher it.and lastly it has one thing i hate in any video game….puzzles.I HATE PUZZLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!if i wanted to do puzzles i would have bought a puzzle game.this game promises great big worlds,game of the year quality,and so much more.but all ive seen is a guy who can jump around like a monkey playing around in the desert.the fighting is bad.movement is a total chore.the maps are weird and the story is like sands in an hourglass.now,i will say that this game could be fun.however,you will need to look up walkthroughs on the net,maybe buy the big book that tells how to get through and definately have someone around who knows how to do stuff.heck,i cant even find any good cheat codes for this game.dont belive the hype.this game is not i repeat NOT STELLAR!It can be fun but keep your expectations low.

1 Star what happened?
the prince of persia game series has been one of my favorite series for the shear fun factor. take away a breathtaking story, engaging characters, amazing fight mechanics and the wall running trap dodging puzzles are plenty fun all on their own. well in this one they DID take away all the things that made POP fun, and then they simplified the wall running and made it not fun anymore.

the combat is simplistic and it holds your hand the whole way, in case you’ve never played a video game before in your life the game pauses itself and indicated when to block, ALWAYS, at first i thought it was tutorial, but no, right up until i stopped playing the game would give me a nice litle indicator screen to block with, if you fail the block however you just get knocked down… thats all… i can’t imagine who thought it was a good idea to have the combat on the level of playing with duplo blocks.

the animation i can udnerstand, and it works well for the game, the overall feal of the game is suposed to be magical so the fudging and cel shaded style of it all comes off rather nicley except elika being damn barefoot all the time did piss me off though i’m not sure why.

the free running is all on the same button as jump this time around and being used to the tight easy to learn/hard to master controlls of POP2 and 3 i felt like a guy who learned how to ride a dirtbike only to be stuck on a tricycle for 3 hours.

no, i can’t recomend this game to any one other than toddlers, or people looking to get into video games but have poor hand/eye coordination.

3 Stars Gets old real fast, and combat is problematic
I usually don’t like platformers, but I took a chance on this game after IGN raved about it. The result is a mixed bag: the platforming action is enjoyable, but I find the combat engine to be unresponsive and annoying.

The heart of the Prince of Persia series – going back to the franchise’s side-scrolling days – has always been an agile, acrobatic hero as opposed to a muscle-bound brute. The newest iteration stays true to that formula, and the hero, who isn’t really a “prince” at all but a Han Solo type rogue, has all the moves from the Sands of Time trilogy and more, and it’s really cool to pretend that I’m the one doing the wall runs, ceiling runs, and rebound jumps to scale impossible heights.

One IGN reviewer complained that the hero’s abrasive personality really annoyed him, but I found the opposite to be true. While the hero is a selfish mercenary-type who helps Elika only because he’s forced to, his witty back-and-forth banter with her is entertaining and serves as a nice diversion from the usual platforming – “Run, jump die, repeat, run, jump, die, repeat. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.” It’s a good thing that Elika has the intelligence, wit, and (sometimes) sarcasm to go toe-to-toe with the hero and hold her own; this is a credit to the scriptwriters.

Elika is a wonderful AI character. She is the first AI partner I’ve had in a game whom I don’t have to constantly babysit (yes, I’m looking at you, Fallout 3! And you, Saints Row 2!). In the platforming segments, she can perform every action you can, so there’s never a worry that she’ll fall behind (I’m looking at you, Silent Hill 4!). She never bumps into you or obstructs your path. I also thank Ubisoft for Elika’s “compass power” which shows me how I can reach my next destination (unlike in The Sands of Time, where I once searched for my next jump for over 2 hours – no joke).

The fact that Elika saves the hero whenever he’s about to die has brought some criticism from players, but I say this is a good thing; when you die in a game, you simply load the most recent save file and try again, right? So having Elika rescue you saves time and makes the gameplay smoother. But to encourage players to not be too reckless, Ubisoft has included an Achievement which is unlocked if Elika saves you less than 100 times in a single play-through.

So if I like this game so much, why did I give it only 3 stars? One reason is that it gets real repetitive real fast (again, it’s “Run, jump die, repeat, run, jump, die, repeat”). The other big reason is the combat system. If Ubisoft was going to give me only four enemy types in the whole game, they could have at least varied up the enemies from one encounter to the next. For example, fighting the Concubine feels exactly the same whether I’m fighting her for the first time or the fourth time. She employs the same tactics, same patterns, same everything, so I too have to do the same things over and over (since there is only one type of attack that damages her).

The timing of hitting buttons during combat also proved problematic: I hold Right Trigger to block, then release, then hit X to attack, but nothing happens on the first press. So I lose a fraction of a second there, which is just long enough for the enemy to hit me. This happens time and time again! Enemies also have the uncanny ability to interrupt my combos, but I can’t interrupt theirs. Whenever I’m on the offensive, pushing the enemy back, he will somehow miraculously interrupt my combo and instantly turn the tables. This feels so unbelievably cheap and frustrating that I have to keep from throwing my controller into the wall.

So the end result? Only a “meh” rather than a “wow.” If the monotony of the platforming segments were broken up with more variety, and if the combat system had been tightened up, we could have had a real winner here.

1 Star Is this a joke??
Am I on Candid Camera? Am I being Punk’d? You must be kidding me! This game is total crap!! You run around a big cylinder, fight a bad guy, then go around collecting Super Mario type coins for a while until you reload the (almost) exact same map and fight the exact same bad guy!! Between this game and Assassin’s Creed, I’m thinking about selling my Xbox 360 and getting a life.

5 Stars Really Fun and Awesome game
A really fun, awesome and beautiful game imo. This was worth my preorder and I cant wait for the next one in the series. The controls were fun and easy to grasp. The story although cliche is nicely done.

If you do buy or play this game, I would strongly suggest invoking and listening to the dialogue between the princess and the ‘prince’. It’s very well written and nicely voice acted which is so rare in video games.

Buy/More Info